Year 4 Curriculum Newsletter Autumn 2

Year 4 Autumn Newsletter

Year 4 Survival Day!

As you will know, I have asked the class to create a piece of art work at home in the outdoors with their family. I have posted a copy of this letter to our class page.

We would love for children to go out into the great outdoors and investigate nature to decide upon their art piece. They must use all natural materials to create their art work.

We will be holding a competition for the most creative art pieces or sculptures made. The children have researched Andrew Goldsworthy so will have lots of starting ideas.

Please take photos of your art work being created and the finished piece, these need to be submitted to Miss Devey by the morning of Friday 12th June to be entered into the competition. I can't wait to see your work!

Tudor Exhibition by Year 4 - thank you to all who came. What a lovely afternoon!

Creating An Image

This week during literacy, we have been looking at a range of poems which create an image in our mind when they are read. We have focussed our poem work on the author Christina Rossetti. Today, the children have taken their favourite Christina Rossetti poem and tried to portray what they imagine when the poem is read, through dance or drama. Why not take a look...

A Diamond or A Coal 4.MOV

If a Mouse.MOV

Hopping Frog.MOV

A Diamond or A Coal.MOV

Raising money for Nepal! Our cake sale and swimathon! Well done Year 4, you did amazingly well!

Nepal Earthquake Appeal

After discussing the earthquake devastation in Nepal, the children in class 4D have asked if they can do a fund raiser to raise money to support the survivors of the earthquake. The came up with many ideas but they have finally decided upon organising a cake sale for school (letters to follow shortly) and a sponsored swim during their swimming lesson on Thursday 14th May 2015. Children will be able to collect sponsors for swimming for a timed period of 30 minutes! Phew! Sounds exhausting! Sponsor forms for the children will go out next week. Thank you in advance for your support!

Samlesbury Hall Tudor Trip

Writing Music Notation

Year 4 Production - Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies

We would like to say a big thank you to all who came to support the children in the show! We hoped you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed practising it. The children were outstanding and never ceased to amaze me with their hard work towards learning so many lines. Congratulations Year 4!

Year 4 Hockey Lessons...

Lots of Socks! Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Day Everyone!

Solar Eclipse 20/3/15

The children really enjoyed learning about the stages of the solar eclipse! Why not quiz them at home and see if they can give you the definition of these buzz words...

First contact

Second contact

Totality

Third contact

Fourth contact

Such a shame about the weather, however we still had lots of fun going out on to the school yard and wearing our special eclipse glasses to try and spot the eclipse behind the clouds! Take a look ...

Lined up and ready to try and spot the eclipse!

The Passion Story

A Special Visit from Father Chris

On Monday, Father Chris came in to speak to our Year 4 children about the story of Easter and what Christians sacrifice.

The children discussed all of the things they are passionate about and why, giving some lovely examples to Father Chris.

Father Chris then gave the children pictures from the Easter story to discuss the emotions the picture promoted and what they thought was happening.

A lovely afternoon was had by all.

Can you fly an arrow straight and true like Robin Hood? The children can! Well, nearly... excellent effort Year 4!

View our electricity Power Point presentations!

Today, we had a special visitor, Debbie Green, pop in to our class to teach us about the story 'The Prodigal Son'. Debbie told us the story about the lost son and showed us a funny film clip of the story (we've put it on here to share with you!) We then had to answer a quiz about some of the key words in the story using our puppet sticks to show the answers. After, we settled down to do some writing in role as the lost son and as the father. One of the pigs from the story even made an appearance in our classroom and watched us do some work! He was very impressed with our writing! Thanks for coming in Debbie!

The Prodigal Son

Here's the film clip we watched while we were learning about the lost son!

Electronic Board Games

Over the last two days, the class have been planning and constructing an electrical board game, using their knowledge of electrical circuits from their science lessons.

The children have designed their games on a topic they feel they have extensive knowledge of, such as, horse riding, gymnastics, football, Mine craft and the story 'The Railway Children', to name a few.

After designing their games, the class created a process criteria that they felt they needed to follow to be able to construct their game.

Firstly, the children had to cut their cereal boxes to size and cover them with their choice of coloured paper.

Next, the children designed their titles, question and answer cards, then decorated their board games to make them look eye catching.

After this, the children then began to add the electrical circuits by attaching split pins to the question and answer cards, to work as an electrical conductor. Joining the correct split pins together with a thin wire, then allowed an electrical current to pass from the correct answer and question.

Finally, the children then added an energy source, in this case batteries, and a light bulb to their circuit. This time joining them using crocodile clips. This then allowed children to create complete circuits when the touched the crocodile clips to metal split pins (conductor). Only if they touched the question and its correct answer would the light bulb light, if the wrong answer was touched, no light. You'll get to play these fantastic board games next Thursday (12th) at our 'Science Museum Exhibit'.

Livin' on a Prayer

During our music lessons this last half term, the children have been focusing on the song 'Livin' on a Prayer'. They have learned all about the different aspects of the song with a focus on tempo, pitch, pulse, rhythm and dynamics.

Not only have the children learned to sing this song beautifully, they have learned to accompany the song with the use of glockenspiels and keyboards! The children have learned to play the keyboard, using only one hand, focusing on the notes G GF#ED GED and GAB GAG on the glockenspiels. Fantastic work year 4! Check out their video...

My Family – Spanish Fun!

In Spanish today, the children have been learning how to introduce a family. They are able to say how many brothers and/or sisters they have as well as talk about a family household.

Here is a video clip of some children having a conversation in Spanish about how many brothers and sisters they have.

They also know a rhyme for introducing a family, take a look…

Do you have any brothers and sisters?

My Family Finger Rhyme

The Balaclava Story

During Literacy today, the children have been looking at stories which raise issues or dilemmas. They have started to read the story ‘The Balaclava’ in which a young boy is desperate for a balaclava so that he can join the ‘Balaclava Boys’ club with his friends. His mum refuses saying ‘it’s silly to wear a balaclava in summer!’ and he now feels left out as he friends won’t let him join in with them.

The children chose scenes from the part of the story we read and put themselves in role as the characters to create some freeze frames.

Take a look at the children getting into character…

Freeze framing scenes from The Balaclava Story...

Freeze Frames Come to Life!

Here are some of our children putting themselves in roles as characters from the story, in the form of a freeze frame. When they are touched on the head they come to life and say what that character might be thinking or saying. When they are touched on the heart they share how they might be feeling as the character.

Heysham Power Station Trip 2015

What a superb trip! The children had a wonderful time having a walk around tour of Heysham Power Station 2 with their tour guides. The children found out about how the power station works and why it was built where it is. They found out loads of interesting facts, why not ask them about it at home…

How many reactors does the power station have?

Why does the power station use sea water?

How many times does the turbines turn in the click of a finger?

How many times does the turbines turn in a minute?

How many EDF power stations are there?

Heysham Power Station Trip 2015

In Science today, we investigated which materials are conductors/insulators of electricity...

School Visitor - Mr Whyte (Electrical Engineer)

Here are some photos from our visit from Mr Whyte, he spoke to us about how electricity travels and the types of appliances electricity powers. We discuss the importance of being safe with electricity and experimented with some very special equipment. The children loved powering a fan and light by cycling to help create electricity, it was really hard work! Take a look…

Electricity powered by the peddling of a year 4 child!

Here is one of our pupils trying to run a fan and light through the power of peddling on a bicycle to generate electricity. Very difficult! What happens when he goes from trying to power the fan to powering both a fan and a light? Take a look...

Shocking!

This half term’s topic is ‘Shocking!’ The children will be learning all about the science of electricity. We plan to create circuits to light a bulb or sound a buzzer, investigate conductors and insulators, research renewable energy sources, research the person who first harnessed electricity and able our knowledge of circuits to creating a board game! Very exciting! Watch this space to see what the children are getting up to…

Year 4 Art Exhibition

Thank you to everyone who came this afternoon! What a fantastic time the children had and I must say, myself and Mr Harding are very impressed with the art work our parents produced! It seems we have some very talented parents!

We hope you enjoyed yourselves and we look foward to seeing you at our next event.

Off to Asda to spend our profit from Enterprise Week on those less fortunate than ourselves...

What an amazing morning we have had! Yet again, the children here at Torrisholme have done us all proud! At 9;15am this morning, myself, Mr Harding, Mrs Price, Jamie, Matty , Ashton, Will and Sara-Jane arrived at Asda, eager to spend our profit. We were joined by Annette and some of the volunteers from the foodbank with our trolleys, decorated with balloons.

The children set off around Asda with their shopping lists, collecting all the items they needed whilst searching for the best deals!

Finally, after two hours of shopping (the longest I have ever spent in Asda!), the children took all of their jam packed trolleys to the check out where a quarter of a tonne of food was scanned through, not to mention all of the other items, such as, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soaps, nappies and children’s gifts!

The food bank were ever so thankful! Later on, they contacted us to let us know that we had bought enough food to make 850 meals for families over Christmas! How wonderful!

Congratulations year 4, your selfless act will have put many smiles on faces this Christmas!

Japanese Manga Sketches

We hope you are all looking forward to our 'Cultural Art Exhibition' on Thursday 18th December! The children's Australian and Japanese art work is fantastic! Below are the children's first attempts at Japanese Manga. It seems we have some budding artists in our midsts.

Manga Art Sketches

After discussion, the children in year 4 have decided to donate their winnings to the Morecambe Food Bank. The kindness of our children never ceases to amaze me!

The children have created a food list and nominated three children from 4D (Jamie, Matty and Lucy), and three children from 4H (Ashton, Sara-Jane and Will) to go shopping to Asda with our £210 pounds and buy the food for the charity. In the words of the children 'They need it more than we do, especially at Christmas!' How lovely! We will post pictures of this later on in the week.

Congratulations!!!!!

Year 4's Funky Flowerpots made the greatest profit during enterprise week! A whopping £423.53! Well done Year 4! Stay tuned to see how the children decide to spend their half of the profit!

Enterprise Week

Year 4 have created their own company 'Funky Flowerpots' and at this Friday's Christmas Fair, will be selling a range of beautifully decorated plant pots in a selection of sizes. Each plant pot is potted with a spring bulb and can be gift wrapped for the perfect gift. You can even order you very own personalised plant pot with your choice of design or message. Check out Y4's fabulous TV adverts and poster advertisements below...

TV Advert

There was some great team work to create this fantastic advert! Well done!

TV Advert

Poster Advertisements

The making process - and so the hard work begins! Here are the children getting to work on painting your personalised pot orders. Look at the concentration!

Australian Art Work

During this last week, the children in year 4 have been researching and creating some of their own representations of 'Aboriginal Art'.

They have looked at the earthy colours used in the art and tried to imitate the circular or reptitive patterns that make the work so eye catching. We had great fun doing them! Why not have a go at home, all you need is paper, poster paint and some ear buds to create the circular dabs on the paper. If you do have a go, send them into school, we'd love to see them!

Australian Animal Screen Printing

Around the World

The aim of this topic will be to research (travel to) two different countries, comparing and contrasting along the way. Children will use maps to identify where the country is within the world and its surrounding countries and seas. Children will look at the physical and human features of the countries with a brief touch on natural disasters. There will be a heavy focus on art during this topic, looking at both aboriginal art and manga sketching. We look forward to sharing our art work with you!

Children in Need 2014! Thank you to all who donated... we raised £483.05! Brilliant!

Afternoon Tea!

Thank you to everyone who came to Year 4's afternoon tea, myself and Mr Harding were overwhelmed the amount parents, aunties, uncles and grandparents who turned up for the event, so thank you very much for taking the time to come!

The children had a lovely day preparing jam sandwiches for you, aswell as setting up the hall with their amazing cars of the future and gigantic, old fashioned cars timeline! It was brilliant for the children to be able to share their hard work over the topic 'Transport 100 years Ago!'

We hope you enjoyed the afternoon, with your brews and sandwiches, along with live musical performances by the children of 'Street Sounds from 1914'.

We look forward to you taking part in our next get together.... A good, old fashioned BARN DANCE!

See you all then!

We have been making 'Cars of the Future' in our topic lessons, designing cars with amazing new features in mind. This is the way 4D think the car market is going to go in the future! Flying cars, cars which can travel on top of and under water, car/diggers and cars which can become invisible. Take a look...you will be able to view these cars in detail at the Afternoon Tea event on Thursday at 1:30pm.

Check out our monster 'Cars of the Past' Timeline! We had to work together to order the cars chronologically as well as use the information we found out on our trip to match the car pictures with their make and model!

Lots of fun was being had at the Halloween Disco last night! Fantastic outfits year 4...

Lakeland Motor Museum and Train Ride Trip

Yesterday, Year 4 went on a trip to lakeland Motor Museum and Haverthwaite Train Station. We had a fantastic time! The children started in the Motor Museum, they were given a quiz book with a range of questions about the cars, bikes and motorcycles that could be found in the museum, with the opportunity to win a medal for completing the quiz. The children explored the old fashioned cars and were amazed by the differences from the cars of today. Upstairs in the museum, there were even arcade games from the 1900's. I was slightly upset when Joe asked me if this was what arcade games were like when I was little however! The children loved the museum! They were astonished at the size of the vehicles in the Cambell Bluebird Exhibition.

After the museum, we took a short coach ride to Haverthwaite Train Station where the children had their lunch and staff were given hot drinks and freshly baked scones with cream and jam! This went down very well with the staff, as you can imagine! The children had some free time in the newly created play park before heading out on the train to Lakeside.

The children loved sitting in old fashioned carriages and enjoyed the slow train ride through the beautiful scenery and dark tunnels. When we arrived in Lakeside, the children and I had little stroll around the Marina, looking at the different boats before taking the train ride back to Haverthwaite.

Well done year 4, yet again, you were an asset to the school and your parents! A super day out!

Take a look at the pictures from our lovely trip ...

Transport 100 Years Ago!

Our topic for the next two weeks will be all about cars from the past. The class will be learning to identify different types of transport and how it has developed over the last 100 years. Have a look at our newsletter below to find out more about this topic!

Orienteering Competition

A massive well done to everyone who took part in the Year 4 Orienteering Competition! It was a huge success!

The competition was held in the school grounds, with children and parents alike, following a map to find 15 control points. Lots of fun was had by all! We were very impressed with how well our parents worked to find the markers, but the stars of the show were the year 4 children, who won the competition! Well done!

Caught on Camera...Fun at the Orienteering Competition!

Non Chronological Reports in Literacy

During our Literacy lessons, the children have been learning about non chronological reports. They have researched a range of different information texts based on animals in the outdoors and identified their key features.

The children have written their own information texts on a chosen animal using the features identified in the literacy lessons. They have also tried to include some writing skills, such as, embedded clauses, a range of punctuation, paragraphs and appropriate vocabulary.

In Spanish, year 4 have been learning about animals and where they live. The children are beginning to learn some Spanish adjectives to describe these animals. Here is a song the children have been practising about animals, where they live and descriptions of the animals. Can you guess which animals the children are talking about?

Below the video is also a website, with a song on that the children have learned.

Year 4 Curriculum Evening - if you missed out on the talk, don't worry, here is the powerpoint with all of the information discussed.

Our Literacy unit, for the last four weeks, has been focusing on stories with imaginary/fantasy settings. We have learned all about adjectives and embedded clauses in our sentence work as well as how we could try to start our sentences in different ways, using adverbs, conjunctions and adverbial phrases.

We have done lots of work on and based around the book 'Where the Wild Things Are'. It is a brilliant story and, in turn, the children have tried to create their own versions of the story. We even tried to include some description of our imaginary homes which we made in Acorn Corner (you can see photos of these earlier on in the website).

Here are some of the stories that the children created, we hope you enjoy reading them!

Year 4 had a fantastic time on their climbing trip to Morecambe High this week, learning how to climb the wall to the top and support their partners by belaying them through their own harness. The children had a brilliant time! Well done 4D!

Climbing Photos

Spanish Poster Competition

In line with the spanish work that the children have been doing, about animals and where they live, over the last few weeks, we have decided to host a spanish poster competition. The children have had to look back at the spanish they have learned and select and name an animal, as well as ask the animal where it lives. Our judge, Señora Pitcher, will be looking at the accuracy of the children's spanish as well as the presentation of their work. There will be a girl and boy prize for the posters that stand out the most to Señora Pitcher! We will post the prize winners on here next week! Good luck!

Here are a few examples of the children's fantastic posters...

Spanish Posters

This week children have been focusing on their sketching skills, learning how to use 2B, 3B, 4B and 6B pencils for adding depth and shading to our pictures. The focus for our pictures, is of course, insects and animals! Check out our first attempts at using a 6B pencil for creating pictures of insects which look 3D!

Fun in Spanish

¿Dónde vives? (Where do you live?)

We have been having lots of fun in Spanish, learning to ask people where they live as well as learning how to respond to people who have asked us where we live.

Where do you live?

Year 4 children playing a game in Spanish, asking where the other children in their group live. Which group will get around their table to finish first?

Here are two of our children demonstrating the conversation...

Now, it's your turn...

Why not have some fun at home and practise with your child? You could even send us in a video clip of your conversation! We would love to see it! Please pass on any video clips to Miss Devey...we look forward to hearing from you.

Practising at home...

What a superstar! One of our pupils has been practising her spanish at home with her sister. Well done!

More Science...Habitats information. Have a read and then test your knowledge with the quiz and game.

A lovely email from one of the leaders on our school trip! Take a look...

Today class 4D went on their trip to Abbeystead! After a short coach trip, our class were ready and eager to explore the outdoors but before that could start, we had to take a ride in a beater trailor attached to a tractor! How exciting! Lots of giggling children could be heard as we bounced along the road.

Once we had calmed down from the excitement of being pulled in a trailor the children began to explore the outdoors, identifying mole hills and bird nests hidden in dry stone walls (it was Mr Miller's keen eye that spotted this). The children found out about the rivers and the types of animals adapted to this particular environment. We were very intrigued when we were shown the rush plant and learned about how it's centre, once the outer leaf had been pulled away, had been used as the centre of a candle in the olden days.

After a lovely walk in the sunshine, we had a surprise visit from a pair of gunner dogs with their trainer. The children thought this was fantastic and enjoyed watching the demonstration where the dogs would hunt for the dead animal (a furry toy) and retrieve it. Some of our children even got to throw the practise toy for Roo, the older gunner dog, to retrieve! What a treat!

The day was finished off with a short walk to the log yard where the children could see how larger tree trunks are cut down into smaller pieces. They learned all about how when trees are felled, new trees are planted so that the environment is maintained. We were even lucky enough to get some small wooden pieces for us to look at and see how old the trees were when we got back to school.

Well done on another lovely day out year 4! I hope you enjoy our picture slideshow of the days activities.

Abbeystead Trip Slideshow

Year 4 Habitat Walk at Happy Mount Park

This afternoon year 4 went on a walk around Happy Mount Park, we had a fantastic time! The children were excited to see some different animals in their habitats as well as look at how this local environments is maintained. Miss Devey was the most excited after spotting the first animal in it's habitat, a squirrel eating nuts in it's tree. The ducks from the local pond were eager to meet the Torrisholme children as well!

After splitting off into groups, the children explored the woodland areas, identifying animals and their habitats. They made notes and sketches on their findings. A few of the children even spotted areas in the woodland that looked like dens and let their imaginations run wild with the sorts of imaginary creatures that might have lived there! And, as always, our children were very well behaved, setting an amazing example for our school! Well done, what a lovely afternoon 4D!

Here are a few snaps from our Happy Mount Park trip...

Woodland Creature Fantasy Homes - Year 4 have been writing fantasy setting descriptions based in the outdoors!

Great woodland home by Ewan, Ceira and Blake!

Brilliant teamwork Jessica, Cameron and Emily!

Super building work Harvey, Amelia and Ruby!

Excellent communication skills Will, Izzy and Sam!

Brilliant design work by Faye, Lucy and Marnie!

Well done Emily, Freya and Jamie!

Excellent work Ben, Natalie and Alfie!

Super camoflage Abigail, Gemma and April

Well done Callum, Matthew and Jaiden!

Great work Jake, Matty and Joe!

Torrisholme Treasure Hunt

This morning, Class 4D went on a lovely walk around Torrisholme looking for clues to answer their treasure hunt questions. The children worked very well together and showed off their fantastic observational skills.

Investigating...How many birds on the staind glass window? What number does the vicar live at?